1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for transmitting, receiving, and recording (downloading) information, such as a data service system using digital satellite broadcasting, and more particularly, to an information receiving apparatus for receiving information and for sending downloading data to a storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital satellite broadcasting has become widespread these days. Compared with analog broadcasting, digital satellite broadcasting is immune to noise and fading, and allows high-quality signal transmission. In addition, a frequency use efficiency has been improved and multiple channels can be used. In digital satellite broadcasting, for example, one satellite can provide several hundreds of channels. In such digital satellite broadcasting, a number of special channels have been provided, such as a sport channel, a movie channel, a music channel, and a news channel. In these special channels, programs having corresponding special contents are broadcasted.
It has been proposed that, with the use of the above digital broadcasting satellite system, the user be able to download audio data such as a musical piece and the user be able to make a purchase contract for a product while watching a broadcasted screen in a so-called TV shopping. In other words, the digital satellite broadcasting system provides data service broadcasting in addition to usual broadcasting.
When a musical-piece data is to be downloaded, for example, the broadcasting side multiplexes broadcasting programs with musical-piece data and broadcasts them. When the musical piece is downloaded, a graphical user interface (GUI) screen (a screen for downloading operations) is displayed to allow the user to perform interactive operations. The data of this GUI screen is also multiplexed and broadcasted.
The user having a receiving apparatus selects the desired channel and performs predetermined operations on the receiving apparatus to display the GUI screen used for downloading. When the user performs an operation on the displayed operation screen, data is sent, for example, to a digital audio unit connected to the receiving apparatus and recorded.
It can be considered that such a GUI screen used for downloading musical-piece data is provided with a required display form and a required output form including sound by handling characteristic data (files), such as audio data for outputting sound according to a predetermined operation in addition to information including image data and text data constituting the GUI screen, as objects and specifying the output forms of these objects with scenario descriptions by a predetermined method.
A display screen (including audio output) for implementing a function for a given objective by specifying with description information, such as the above GUI screen, is referred to as a “scene” in this application. An “object” indicates unit information for which its output form is specified according to description information, such as an image, sound, and text. During transmission, the data file of description information itself is treated as one “object.”
Objects for implementing scene display and an audio output on the scene display are appropriately mapped onto the directory structure of data constituting scenes to be broadcasted by the broadcasting side, encoded by a predetermined transmission method, and sent. When one program needs a plurality of scenes, for example, the data of objects required for the plurality of scenes is appropriately mapped and sent.
The receiving apparatus decodes the data according to the transmission method, obtains, for example, the data of object clusters necessary for a required scene display, and outputs it as a scene.
The receiving apparatus which the user owns is connected to a storage device used for downloading. As the storage device, an MD recorder, a VCR, or a DVD recorder can be used. Appropriate collaborative operations need to be performed during downloading between the storage device and the receiving apparatus.
To ensure an accurate downloading operation, an appropriate action also needs to be taken depending on actual downloading conditions.
To execute positive downloading, the storage device needs to satisfy an operation condition for implementing downloading.
When an MD recorder is taken as an example, if a disk is not loaded or a disk is write-protected, downloading cannot be performed. A disk also needs to have a sufficient remaining recording capacity.
In addition to these medium conditions, the following conditions need to be checked for accurate downloading: whether the storage device is turned on and whether the storage device is ready to receive data from the receiving apparatus.
To perform downloading, the user needs to check that these conditions are satisfied in the storage device, and if the conditions are not satisfied, the user has to take a necessary countermeasure, such as a disk change.
Actually, however, the user does not always perform this checking appropriately, and an error occurs due to misunderstanding or an unfamiliar operation.
In such a case, even if downloading is actually started, appropriate downloading cannot be performed.
A time period required for a downloading operation differs depending on the amount of data, such as the length of a musical piece.
The user wants to know the progress of the current downloading operation. Because a downloading time differs according to the musical piece being downloaded, it is difficult to determine even an approximate progress.
It has been proposed that compressed data such as ATRAC data described later be directly sent to the storage device in downloading to reduce the downloading time. In such high-speed downloading, since musical-piece data is downloaded, for example, within a period (about one-fourth, for example) shorter than the usual performance time of the musical piece, it is more difficult for the user to know the progress.
The user may have a plurality of units of the same type, such as MD recorders. In such a case, the user may connect a plurality of storage devices to the receiving apparatus.
Then, before downloading, it is necessary to select a connected storage device to which musical-piece data is to be sent and in which the data is to be downloaded into a recording medium. This means that the user has to perform an operation for selecting the unit for which downloading is to be executed.
When the user is required to perform such a selection operation, it is demanded that the receiving apparatus know the conditions of connected units and the user perform the unit selection operation by a simpler operation method.